


everything stays

by Lyre (Lyrecho)



Series: Facets [1]
Category: Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII, Ivalice Alliance, Original Work
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Growing Up, Lorebuilding, Pre-Canon, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:54:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22058854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrecho/pseuds/Lyre
Summary: Once, there were two siblings that loved each other very much.This is how they grew apart.|Tumblr||Twitter|
Relationships: Senra | OC & Cafren | OC
Series: Facets [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587475
Kudos: 3





	everything stays

Growing up, Senra had many siblings.  
  
Siblings of blood. Clan-siblings of a similar age. Cafren, her favourite, was the former. A decade her senior, but still closer to her than the rest. In that halcyon time before Cafren's twentieth nameday - that date when Viera reach adolescence, and declare themselves before the clan - they are inseparable.  
  
Lunde - a sister of the clan, declared a few years before Senra was born - scolded her for her attachment to Cafren, once. "One never knows where one may end up," she'd reminded Senra. "Not when one is a child."  
  
"Cafren and I will _always_ be together!" Senra had told her, bright and cheerful and unconcerned. "We love each other. They'll never leave me."  
  
Lunde had simply smiled, soft and sad, reaching down a hand to push Senra's hair out of her face, untangling her ears. "One can only hope," she'd said.  
  
And then Cafren's declaration had come, and the entire clan gathered to watch. Not just the clan, though - Senra had heard of the men, and had even caught a glimpse of a single one visiting the settlement, once or twice, but had never really _seen_ one until that moment. Just like the rest of the clan, their brother settlement, usually so separate and secretive, had come to watch Cafren's declaration.  
  
They look nervous, standing at the front of the crowd at the entrance to the woods - not _The_ Woods, because the Feol weren't welcome there - but the closest semblance to that sacred land their clan had access to. At each of Cafren's shoulders stands an Elder of the clan; an Elder Brother on their left and an Elder Sister on their right. They will lead Cafren into the heart of the woods, where they will whisper their name to the trees.  
  
The Elder Sister places a gentle hand on Cafren's back - an encouraging nudge forward. They swallow, and glance back to lock eyes with Senra, who smiles at them, encouragingly. Smiling weakly back, they step forward, to declare themselves to the woods. Senra watches them go, slow and careful.  
  
Cafren enters the woods a child, her sibling. He leaves them as a young man - her brother.  
  
At the time, Senra hadn't understood what that meant. She'd only know that everyone was cheering, and Cafren - though still pale - was grinning wide enough that it was surely hurting them. Hurting _him_.  
  
They'd eaten well, that night, keeping the candles burning until the moon was low in the sky - Sisters dancing and giggling with Brothers, and even the Elder's scolding attempts to shoo the children off to bed were half-hearted.   
  
Sometime before dawn, when Senra was finally beginning to feel the weight of too many hours awake settle, Cafren had broken away from the heart of the party, to lift Senra up and carry her, half asleep, to her bed.  
  
"Love you," he'd whispered, and pressed a soft kiss to Senra's forehead.  
  
"Mm, 'ove you too," she'd mumbled. "Play later."  
  
He went still, but hugged her tighter a for a moment. "Later," he'd promised, voice thick.  
  
When Senra woke up that evening, Cafren was gone - had left with the men, as dawn broke, as was tradition. She didn't see him again, not for a whole decade - her own declaration was the first one he'd come to in ten years. He'd smiled at her when she stepped out of the woods as his sister, and had hugged her tight before the men had left at dawn; this time, without a new brother.  
  
Sixty years on, and she hasn't seen him since.  
  
Sometimes, she thinks, she misses him.


End file.
